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Shikantaza or tranquilizing the ego?

At the risk of starting a more contentious conversation than I'd like to start, I heard something from a talk that got me thinking about this practice and my approach to it.

Shikantaza is pretty radical. Radically normal, but still pretty radical.

I think there's a difference between tranquilizing the ego (that's the phrase that was used and it seemed pretty appropriate) and really coming to each moment with a willingness to throw out everything you know and start at zero. It's not that you have to actually throw it out (although maybe for actual Shikantaza sitting practice you do), but I think you have to be able to.

I think that's why this practice is, as Taigu has said (as I seem to recall), that this is a practice of subtraction, not one of addition.

So, is our practice one of ego tranquilizing or Shikantaza? What is your honest assessment of your practice?

I find this practice a kind of vibrant existential being ... or better, vibrant existential fulfilled LIVING. It does not tranquilize (although sometimes it calms, at times when otherwise the world seems running away into hysteria and confusion and excess right off the cliff). Beyond tranquility, I find how to be thoroughly and vividly immersed in the moment and passions of this life ... love, smiles, tears, loss, celebration, times of boredom, calm or excitement ... all while not being their prisoner or clinging. Yes, there is a Peace that holds it all ... even the anything but peaceful days.

All I can say is that (like Jundo says) I feel liberated from a lot of things, even if I am the same guy with the same old attachments and opinions. I am more aware of my own reactions, even if that doesn't mean anything at all.

And at risk of sounding pretentious, I feel I am a less selfish man of what I used to be.

But again, I am very new to Shikantaza.

Need to sit for a few more years to have a better opinion, I guess.

Gassho,

Kyonin

Please remember I am only a priest in training. I could be wrong in everything I say. Slap me if needed.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. Mr. Spock

Study and acceptance. I don't believe in tranquilizing the ego. Like Suzuki's cows, give the ego space. It's a part of you, don't hate it. See through it, get to know it intimately, learn to live with it. Our minds are not completely pure. There will be egotistic impulses. No need to fight them or try to tranquilize them. No need to follow them either. See them arise, watch them play, let them go. This is my current practice.

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

Study and acceptance. I don't believe in tranquilizing the ego. Like Suzuki's cows, give the ego space. It's a part of you, don't hate it. See through it, get to know it intimately, learn to live with it. Our minds are not completely pure. There will be egotistic impulses. No need to fight them or try to tranquilize them. No need to follow them either. See them arise, watch them play, let them go. This is my current practice.

Gassho,
Pontus

Are egoic impulses impure?

I just don't think Zazen is only for crafting a better personality. That's why I'm always a little suspicious when people say 'Zen helped me ....(anything)'. Not that it doesn't help, but that it isn't for that.

The name on that pill bottle over on the window sill is my father-in-law's, not mine. We are one, but "he" is
not "me". Sitting this morning there is no "me" and "him", because thought isn't engaged, but when the mail
comes, "me" and "him" are a good idea. It's not like ego is a thing that can be put to sleep. It is an action, a natural
function of social interface. So I sit every day , and thinking... ego, is not so opaque, even in the midst of
function. It can still get pretty opaque and reactive, but a bit less so. So I just keep sitting.

Last edited by Daizan; 11-18-2012 at 01:07 PM.

As a trainee I ask that all comments by me on matters of Dharma be taken with "a grain of salt".

I just don't think Zazen is only for crafting a better personality. That's why I'm always a little suspicious when people say 'Zen helped me ....(anything)'. Not that it doesn't help, but that it isn't for that.

Chet

He he. You're right of course.

In a sense, egotistic thoughts are impure, in analogy with the mirror that needs to be polished constantly. But originally, where can dust alight? The mirror is always pure. Egotistic thoughts are Buddha nature.

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

Exactly. See through them, see them for what they are, and they are nor so problematic anymore.

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

Exactly. See through them, see them for what they are, and they are nor so problematic anymore.

Gassho,
Pontus

Right. Who sees through them? You're saying it the only way you can, but it's still not exactly right and as long as you realize it's not exactly right either, then I think Zen is pretty straightforward. Maybe?

Look at a wall. Now look at that which looks at a wall. Now look at that which looks at that which looks at the wall. Now look at........

I don't know anyone who sees through their egoism all the time. Some people are trapped most of the time and know nothing else. Others know what seeing through their ego, being free, is like, but still get trapped from time to time. I don't really believe in enlightened people. Sometimes sentient beings are Buddha. Sometimes Buddhas are sentient beings.

And I don't claim to be right, just sharing my thoughts!

Gassho,
/Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

Look at a wall. Now look at that which looks at a wall. Now look at that which looks at that which looks at the wall. Now look at........

I dunno. That just makes me dizzy!
It won't tell me who I am.

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

I tried to tell my dog that, but he kept chasing his damn tail! As if it was in his nature!

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

I don't know anyone who sees through their egoism all the time. Some people are trapped most of the time and know nothing else. Others know what seeing through their ego, being free, is like, but still get trapped from time to time. I don't really believe in enlightened people. Sometimes sentient beings are Buddha. Sometimes Buddhas are sentient beings.

And I don't claim to be right, just sharing my thoughts!

Gassho,
/Pontus

I think it's kind of strange - because if you seek to see through your ego, then that becomes a vocation of.....the ego! That is, you can actually get trapped by trying not to get trapped by ego.

And yet, there seems to be a way of being that is radically different than a pursuit....a sort of 'resting within' or better yet, a 'letting-rest-within' - just straight up natural mind.

Don't get caught up in mental gymnastics Chet, it doesn't work. Just sit. It does work. The ego can convince us that there are any number of reasons not to sit, or sew stitch by stitch for that matter.
Gassho, Shawn.

Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
"Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
寂道

Don't get caught up in mental gymnastics Chet, it doesn't work. Just sit. It does work. The ego can convince us that there are any number of reasons not to sit, or sew stitch by stitch for that matter.
Gassho, Shawn.

No doubt it works. So does anesthetic. Is that what is being suggested?

Oh my god, I know what he's talking about now! I didn't realize that the 'short' and 'long' pieces as shown on the rakusu were two pieces of cloth with the 'fold' between them as a bar - I thought there were THREE pieces of cloth there.

Don't get caught up in mental gymnastics Chet, it doesn't work. Just sit. It does work. The ego can convince us that there are any number of reasons not to sit, or sew stitch by stitch for that matter.
Gassho, Shawn.

So I've been sitting with this for awhile....

I've decided not to believe a single thought for a while...including this one.